5 Tips for the Smart Yogi’s Forward Bend

Half Standing Forward Bend Hands On Blocks – Ardha Uttanasana

Learn the finer mechanics of forward bends here, and your body will gain the intelligence it needs to work with efficiently with ease. Try this to gain firmness in the legs, flexibility in the hamstrings, and quiet the mind.

Get the full benefits of Forward Bends in every practice, by watching the complete instruction at Yogasync.tv

Video Transcript:

(You’ll get the most benefit from this transcript by watching the video above)

Half Standing Forward Bend Hands on Blocks

Today’s tip is half standing forward bend hands on blocks. One of the problems that tend to happen on this pose is again, the feet, the toes tend to turn out. Soraya turn her heels out so that the outside of the feet are parallel with the mat again, and if she presses her feet into the floor, that’s it.

Another problem that tends to happen is a lot of people would throw the buttocks a lot further back behind the heels. If we bring the buttocks directly above the heels and making sure that the blocks are directly underneath the shoulder, so maybe just bring the blocks in slightly.

Again, you can see that the heel is slightly lifted which us putting pressure on through the neck here, so just bring that down, yeah, nice. Soraya presses the heels of her hands against the block and lets the shoulder blades draw down the back towards the buttocks, presses the feet strongly into the floor, lifting through the thighs and just bring your bellybutton up in towards your spine, and you can see there’s a nice length through the spine here.